Tuesday, November 20, 2012

I took the resident hobby photographer along
to the Taste of Auckland culinary
festival last Thursday (for his photography prowess, not his conversation
skills L). Fortunately, those exhibiting had conversation in
abundance for me so I didn’t feel lonely. The threatened rain stayed away until
we were heading home and little plops began to fall.Good timing.

Euro's lamb dish

I’d done some research beforehand to save
time dithering on what I was going to sample, so off we headed to Euro for my
“main course” of lamb, while Bill chose and slurped his way through their wickedly
good sauce of jalapeno crème fraiche, dotted with a small helping of crab and
prawns.He won on that round. My roasted
lamb rump was fine but I thought it would be great.The mint and pea panna cotta accompanying it was
the real standout both for taste and attractiveness.

My wine pick from the Vilagrad Winerystand was a 3 Brothers Wairarapa Pinot
Noir and strangely enough for me, this was the only glass or taste I had all
evening.

Make mine a Prawn Cocktail please

Reversing my own meal order and returning
to starters, I visited Mexico for the tall cocktail of Prawns in Chipotle Mayo with
baby cos lettuce, green gazpacho and candied lime.The latter stole the show for me, with its
sweet twist giving a fresh touch to the dish.Bill had the beef skirt tacos with green tomatillo, candied pepitas and
nasturtium leaves, which he found just “okay”.Top marks though for Mexico’s colourful stand
design.

And so to my favourite part of any meal,
anytime, anywhere(I scour the dessert menu before anything else –
don’t tell me you’re not the same?). There was no way I was savouring any dessert
other than that from Kermadec chef, Juan Balsani.After his demo at the NZ Food Bloggers’ Conference at the Chocolate Festival in Wellington, I have been waiting for this.

The chocolate I've been waiting for...

If there was any reason I wish I had not
taken Bill along, it was precisely at that moment when, chatting with chef Juan, he (jokingly, okay?) told him that I had his photo on our walls at home.I wished I’d worn sharp stilettos with which
to force a long hole for me to drop into with my scarlet face (and given Bill a
quick, sharp kick on my way down!)I recovered
enough to immerse myself in the delicious experience of breaking open that
chocolate globe to spoon up the glorious silky chocolate inside, combining it with
the taste texture sensation of cocoa powder and green pepper tuiles, balsamic
poached strawberries and polenta crumbs.Maravilloso!

For the record, Bill did another round of
mains and dessert at Depot with a BBQ pulled pork slider with apple slaw and
pickled jalapenos and, to finish, his favourite sweet – lemon meringue pie with
cream – which looked so appealing with its perfect peaks.He was more than happy with his choices.

We headed home out of the city and over the hills after a thoroughly pleasant evening meandering around food tents, listening to cool music from the Nairobi Trio or Peter Urlich and tasting whatever took our fancy from places we'd really like to visit.That’s what Taste of Auckland is all about.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Say July to me and I’ll
tell you it’s summer. Even after twenty
years of being in the southern hemisphere I still can’t get my seasons
right. I’m eating and cooking with pears
and my mind’s tuning in to autumn, hence the pears. Here. Now. When it’s not autumn. But somewhere in the world it is autumn (or
fall), so this is for you, my friend.

The starting point was clotted cream. If you are familiar with clotted cream in
England you may be disappointed to find “Devonshire teas” in New Zealand
are not served with traditional clotted cream but with ordinary whipped
cream. I was, but then I got over it.

Some time ago, a work colleague, who hails from Devon, gave me a
slow cooker recipe for clotted cream.
She was excited as she’d sent it in to NZ chef Peter Gordon in response to his
request in his newspaper column for clotted cream suppliers and her reply was published. It is so very easy you must try it.

Instead of marrying it up with scones, I matched it with some
poached pears for a simple pudding (I love the word “pudding”). The inspiration
came from some poached pears I’d eaten at Dida’s Food Store in Auckland during a
dinner and talk with Dianne Jacob (more on that in my next Etcetera post).

Traditionally clotted cream uses unpasteurized milk but, hey ho, even
though I live in the country the only milk making it to my house is the
supermarket standard (full cream) milk. (Visions
of me on a milking stool milking a cow? Not likely!)

Start the recipe two days before required as it has to cook for 10 hours, cool and then chill for 10 hours.

Follow the instructions for the use of your own slow cooker.

Try and match the dish you use for the cream and milk to the shape
of your slow cooker for maximum area coverage.
The more surface area you have the more cream you will get as the cream
forms on the surface of the dish. So if
you have an oval shaped slow cooker, use an oval shaped dish. I used a Pyrex glass dish (without the lid)
inside the slow cooker.

After skimming off the top, cover the leftover milk with the lid and store in
the fridge. Use it to make scones or a rice pudding.

Store the cream in the fridge but leave at room temperature prior to serving
to soften.

The cream is best eaten on the day or next day.

Clotted Cream

Makes a small bowlful (see photo above) - approximately
¾ cup.

Double the recipe if required and if you have
the room in your slow cooker.

500mls (1 pint) full
cream milk
250mls (1/2 pint) single cream

Turn the slow cooker on to “low” setting.

Invert a saucer on the bottom of the slow
cooker. Place a Pyrex dish, or similar, on
top of the saucer to fit your slow cooker.

Mix the milk and cream in a large jug and
pour gently into the bowl in the slow cooker.

Carefully pour water into the slow cooker so
that it comes up to approximately 4cms from the top of the container holding
the milk and cream. Replace lid on slow
cooker (not container) and leave for approximately 10 hours or overnight. A lovely golden crust should have formed.

Leave to cool, then place in fridge for approx
10 hours. Take crust and cream off the top (it pretty much comes off in one
piece) and there you have it, yummy clotted cream. Stir gently and serve.

Save the leftover milk in the fridge for
another recipe.

Poached Pears

4 firm eating pears, firm and slightly under-ripe

600ml (1 pint) good red wine

65g (2½ oz) sugar

Peel the pears, leaving the stalk on and keeping the pears whole. Place in a heavy saucepan, add the wine and
sugar, stir and bring to the boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for about 1 hour, or until the pears are tender
(test them with a skewer trying not to mark them too much).

When the pears are ready remove with a slotted spoon and keep warm.

Reduce the liquid over a high heat until it has the consistency of
syrup.